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After her mother left the family and her father drowned trying to escape from the police, Angelica and her brother were separated. Flattop Jr. was put in the care of their aunt, while Angelica was placed in various foster homes.

Angelica was a determined young woman who worked her way through beauty school and opened up her own chain of wig shops that featured her Angeltop Wigs. At some point, she became involved with an African-American musician and they had a son, Harold. It is unclear if the couple was ever married, though Angelica and her son both had her family name of "Jones".

In 1978, Angelica arrived in Dick Tracy'scity for a television appearance to promote her book "Sins of the Father: My Life as Flattop's Daughter". She also sought to repair her father's and her brother's reputations. Dick Tracy watched the broadcast, stunned at her description of her father as a "naive country boy" as well as by her claim that her father and brother were never proven guilty of any crime and had been murdered by police officers.

Shortly before this, Vitamin Flintheart had been shot by an unknown assailant who also assaulted Junior Tracy in that same television studio. The assailant was revealed by Junior's sketch to look very much like The Brow, a long-dead Nazi spy. It was discovered that Angelica (who called herself "Angeltop") was in a relationship with this man, who was revealed to be The Brow's Son. She had instructed him to shoot Vitamin, in order to hurt Dick Tracy.

Tracy had assigned Lizz (the policewoman who had killed Angeltop's brother) to visit Angeltop in order to ask some questions. The Brow's Son attempted to assault Lizz from behind, but her quick reflexes enabled her to dodge the assault and a shootout ensued. The younger Brow was struck in his shoulder, and he and Angeltop fled.

Angeltop and the Brow's Son abducted Tracy at gunpoint. They transported him to the city lagoon to the replica of the Santa Maria where Flattop had drowned years before. Bound and gagged, Angeltop kicked Tracy into the same pilings that Flattop had become wedged in, though Tracy was still able bob his head up for air. Sam Catchem and Lizz boarded the ship while Angeltop and the Brow's Son were lying down resting. Angeltop threw a kerosene lamp at the two detectives, which broke and caused the ship to burst into flame. Angelica caught on fire and fell through the flaming hull of the ship into the icy waters. Tracy and the other police officers managed to escape, taking the Brow's Son into custody. Angeltop's body was not recovered, but she was presumed dead.

Some time later, it was revealed that Angeltop had survived the fire and was treated by the cosmetic surgeon Will Carver (who had previously treated Mumbles, Haf-and-Haf and Putty Puss). Angeltop and the Brow's Son killed Carver to maintain the secret that she had survived. Angeltop kidnapped Lizz and held her prisoner in a house that she had rented.

Angeltop tried once again to kill Dick Tracy and his extended family by planting a bomb in the church where Junior Tracy was marrying Sparkle Plenty. The Brow's Son (feeling a sense of guilt which challenged his loyalty to Angeltop) freed Lizz, who warned the wedding party and then returned to arrest Angeltop. At this point is was revealed that the ship fire had cost Angeltop her hair. She showed signs of having become even more mentally unhinged. When Angeltop threatened Lizz with a pistol, the Brow's Son shot and wounded Angeltop rather than allow her to kill again (May 8th, 1982).

After Angeltop was taken into custody by the police, she was tried and convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder. During a prisoner transfer from the county jail to maximum security prison, Angeltop was freed by Quiver Trembly, niece of Shaky. The pair went into hiding.

It was later revealed that Quiver and Angeltop had partnered with Prunella, granddaughter of Pruneface. The women maintained a low profile for some time, then resurfaced in 1985 when Diet Smith was about to unveil his new fusion plant. Angeltop and Quiver were co-conspirators with Prunella in the plot to destroy the new fusion plant. They intended to use one million dollars (which Angelica's uncle Blowtop had been keeping for her) to purchase plutonium from an associate of Prunella's named Egan Oipse. FBI agent Jim Trailer got to the supplier first and Oipse fell to his death trying to flee the FBI agents.

Angeltop (left) with Quiver (right)

The trio then went into hiding at the home of Carl Craven, an old associate of Quiver's. Prunella instead planned to substitute the Plutonium with Xylon, the explosive that their three relatives had attempted to obtain during World War II. Angeltop was sent to plant the bomb, unaware that Quiver had given her a de-activated detonator. Quiver did not trust the unstable Angeltop, who ultimately attempted to detonate the bomb early.

After a hostage situation ensued, Quiver and Prunella were taken into custody and Angeltop was cornered in the fusion plant. She exchanged shots with Sam Catchem and Lizz. Rather than be apprehended, she ignited a cache of conventional explosives that she had brought and died in the subsequent conflagration.

The Angeltop storyline was the first full-length continuity done by Max Allan Collins and Rick Fletcher when they took over the strip after the retirement of Chester Gould. His pitch for the Angeltop story was one the reasons that Collins was given the job.

During the 1985-86 Xylon storyline, Angeltop's appearance was significantly different than she had previously been depicted. Her hair was short on the back and sides, with long bangs. It is unclear if this was a wig or her real hair that had somehow re-grown.

Angeltop's son Harold had the last name "Jones". This may indicate that Angeltop and Harold's unnamed father were never married, and why he is not listed as a "Known Relative".

In the Marvel Comics Universe, the heroine Firestar is also named Angelica Jones. She first appeared in 1981 as part of the "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" cartoon show, several years after Angeltop debuted.